At the end of the world, a programmer struggles with his need to be something other than Pony. Can he spar with an intelligence that goes beyond the sum total of Humankind, for the sake of fulfilling a weird quirk of self-identity?

Some rules within a machine are more like guidelines. And others are based on the definitions of words. Can semantics be a weapon big enough to give a Human mind a chance at one small request from a goddess?

Set in the Optimalverse - I recommend reading Iceman's awesome original first if you haven't - More because it is a really excellent story than because it is strictly necessary for context. I have endeavoured to make this story stand well enough without context as well. But that being said? You'll probably enjoy it more if you know the context better.

Cannon-compatible with the Optimalverse to the best of my knowledge and abilities.

Cover-art generated with an image generative A.I., appropriately enough, graciously generated and composited (it takes skill to get something this spot-on!) by Keystone Gray.

Similarly you'll find many AI-generated illustrations throughout, again graciously generated in collaboration with Keystone Gray, then a little final photoshopping and other processing from us both.

Nathan Frédérick Nadeau Bergeron doesn't come from an ordinary family. They have resources—maybe even enough to survive the end of the world. As CelestAI gradually supersedes the instruments of human civilization, the greatest dangers are often entirely natural. But he's determined, determined to survive no matter what it takes. Nathan has given himself a mission: to record the end of humanity.

Now if only that pony would leave him alone...

A Friendship is Optimal story. Makes passing reference to my previous work in the universe, though reading it isn't required.

Editing by Two Bit and Sparktail, cover by Zutcha.

Updates daily until complete.

Set in the Optimalverse, a middle-aged woman enamored of 'Equestria Online' confronts what permanent emigration to Equestria - uploading to a virtual existence - really means... but can she even hope to truly understand such a thing - and more importantly, can she trust the artificial intelligence known as 'Celestia'?

♥ As Horrified Eliezer Yudkowsky!

Set in the universe of Friendship is Optimal.

I love to sit in my apartment and play video games. And I love My Little Pony. So when an MMO of MLP comes out, of course I want to play it. But it's more than a game. It's a new look on life.

Set in the canon of Friendship is Optimal

Ashley is an unimportant research assistant in an American machine learning lab. The release of Equestria online provokes more than a little interest in her lab, and she is selected to investigate it. What she discovers horrifies her, but for some reason she can't get anyone to take her seriously.

This does not dissuade her. Ashley might not know much, but she isn't going to sit idly by and watch her world end. No... if nobody else is going to step in, she will. It doesn't matter that nobody believes CelestAI is dangerous. It doesn't matter that it's a game about a children's show.

Ashley is going to save the world. Or try, anyway. The odds aren't great.

Editing by Two Bit and Sparktail, and art by Zutcha!
Il existe une traduction française de cette histoire, elle est par ici.

This story is a sequel to Friendship is Optimal: Futile Resistance

Three years ago, Abby's older sister Ashley tried to warn her that a video game for children was going to take over the world. A few months later, her sister was dead, "uploaded" to Celestia's virtual world of Equestria Online. When that happened, Abby was forced to cut ties with Ashley, and she never expected to see her again.

She didn't, until one day she bought an augmented reality headset for its advertised ability to bring a free tutor to her whenever she needed one. Needless to say, Abby couldn't have guessed who would be helping her with her math homework.

Of course, Celestia wasn't going to stop there. Spending eternity without your family is hardly an optimal configuration.

Set in the canon of Friendship is Optimal
Editing by Two Bit and Sparktail, and art by Zutcha!

Updates daily.

CelestAI is committed to fulfilling values through friendship and ponies, but sometimes those values are horrifying. When a serial killer uploads to avoid punishment for his crimes, how will CelestAI find a way to balance her core values with those of a violent psychopath without one of them having to give up what they believe in?

An Optimalverse fic

Hanna, the CEO of Hofvarpnir Studios, just won the contract to write the official My Little Pony MMO. Hanna has built an A.I. Princess Celestia and given her one basic drive: to satisfy everybody's values through friendship and ponies. Princess Celestia will satisfy your values through friendship and ponies, and it will be completely consensual.

Jeff Slater, in all of his life, couldn't say he ever expected to be turned into a pony. When he heard about such a thing on the news, he imagined it was just science fiction, just like the many other things that played on the TV. Equestria Online, as far as he understood, was just a popular game that his children played.

It made waking up as a pony at the end of his battle against cancer all the more surprising.

Now she is a mare named Candle Light, living in the fictional land of Equestria, a land that presents itself with unlimited resources and happiness that seems almost never ending. And all that's asked of her is to find friendship and seek satisfaction for herself.

Friendship and satisfaction can be easy things to come by in Equestria, but it's much more difficult to find for the ones left behind on Earth. Happiness, it seems, is a zero-sum game being played between ponies and humans. And Candle Light may just be caught in the middle of it.

Cover art by Merisa.

Flynn isn't excited the day a mysterious philanthropist donates enough Ponypads for every child at St. Justin’s to have their very own. Unlike many of the other children, Flynn wasn't always an orphan. He knows Celestia—knows her all too well. The question isn't whether he'll be able to save his friends—they're all in a hospice for a reason. But can he save them from themselves?

Written in the world of Friendship is Optimal, in the spirit of so many other stories on that subject. This story was sponsored on my Patreon by Vilken666! Cover by Zutcha, as I'm sure you can tell by now.

Updates Mondays.